It has been an exciting week for Michelle and all her fans over the world, since the secret project of the last black box has finally unfolded — the 100% ingredient transparency fragrance created by Michelle Pfeiffer — HENRY ROSE is now available exclusively on the official website at www.henryrose.com.
HENRY ROSE includes a total of 5 genderless scent: LAST NIGHT, TORN, DARK IS NIGHT, FOG and JAKE’S HOUSE. Each scent represents a different feeling and memories of La Pfeiffer.
“Jake’s House is actually my grandfather’s house in North Dakota! Jake’s my grandfather. Growing up, their house smelled amazing. I think because I grew up in a family of smokers, our house just stank all the time. Now that I’m making this connection, I think when things smelled beautiful, I just relished it because that was so far from my normal life. That’s why I probably became so obsessed and in love with perfume, because of the smoking.”– Michelle Pfeiffer
HENRY ROSE is not ONLY the first 100% ingredient transparency fragrance and it’s also the FIRST to be both EWG Verified™ and Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Gold.
Making these fragrances were not easy, as a fans of Michelle for 27 years I’m really proud of her for her passion and insist on something she believes, the born of HENRY ROSE is already a great success itself.
Tons of new interviews and articles about HENRY ROSE were published at past week, and here are some of the best ones you don’t want to miss (and she even mentioned about her possible next film project!):
Michelle Pfeiffer Returns — This Time, As a Businesswoman
Out | April 8, 2019 by PHILLIP PICARDI
Today, the actress celebrates the launch of her own line of personal fragrances, called Henry Rose.
In a less enlightened age of Hollywood — if we can even imagine such a thing — Michelle Pfeiffer was often referred to by her looks. It’s ironic, because she always seemed to loathe the topic. At one point, before her acting career had taken off, Pfeiffer’s hairdresser came to her house, trying to convince her to sign up for a beauty pageant. Her immediate instinct was to throw him out, but he revealed the all-too-important caveat in the nick of time: One of the judges was a commercial agent, and a potential pathway to a real acting gig.
Far after she’d landed as an actor, a 1988 profile in Interview referred to Pfeiffer as a “Blond Venus” who was the “next screen dream,” listing off accolades such as Time calling her “drop-dead gorgeous” and Harper’s Bazaar naming her “one of the ten most beautiful women in the world.” At that time, she already earned critical acclaim for her acting chops in the now-iconic film Scarface, and bested the box office with The Witches of Eastwick. Just a few years later, she’d go on to secure three Oscar nominations and, by all measure, become one of the most dazzling stars Tinseltown had to offer.
And yet, her beauty still seemed to dominate so much of the conversation. Until, of course, she all but left that conversation — effectively “disappearing” from Hollywood (or, at the very least, the media circus that accompanied it). It’s telling that one of Pfeiffer’s most popular quotes is, “Just standing around looking beautiful is so boring.” And, perhaps more revealing are the roles she’s chosen of late, which have evolved along with the industry.
“I’ve actually passed on a number of projects that were very hard to turn down,” she told The New York Times around the release of her starring role in the Darren Aronofsky film Mother!. “I certainly don’t want to be putting out any more toxicity.”
Now, she’s approaching beauty with this same sense of responsibility. Today marks the launch of Henry Rose, a line of five fine fragrances founded by the actress. The very idea for the company was born out of her initial retreat from the spotlight.
“When I became a new mother, I started to look at the world through the eyes of my kids,” Pfeiffer tells Out. “I started to pay closer attention to the products that I was exposing them to, and around that same time, my father was diagnosed with cancer, my best friend was diagnosed with cancer, and so it was just the perfect storm.”
Pfeiffer’s self-proclaimed “wake-up call” led her to a database of cosmetic products called Skin Deep, which is an initiative led by the Environmental Working Group. According to their website, the EWG “uses the power of information to protect human health and the environment” by having “staff scientists compare the ingredients on personal care product labels and websites to information in nearly 60 toxicity and regulatory databases.” Today, you can look up virtually any product you’re about to purchase, and search it on Skin Deep’s database before receiving immediate information about any potential harmful ingredients located inside.
“I went down the rabbit hole with this database,” Pfeiffer recalls. “But whenever ‘fragrance’ would pop up, over and over again, EWG would flag it as a high hazard.”
The reasons for this are potentially two-fold: Whenever you see “fragrance” as a listed ingredient in a cosmetic product, Pfeiffer explains, that’s really a catch-all for multiple other ingredients that do not need to legally be disclosed by the cosmetics companies. “There’s absolutely no regulation around it as an ingredient,” she says. Conventional beauty industry knowledge would say that’s because major brands want to protect their signature scents from being copied by their competitors. Pfeiffer, for her part, calls bullshit.
“Fragrance has been really shrouded in secrecy, and people need to know there are some of us in the world who have severe and chronic allergy sensitivities, and this affects their day-to-day life,” she says.
Dismayed by the database results, Pfeiffer chucked her fragrances altogether. All the while, her peers racked up multimillion dollar cosmetics contracts and licensed fragrance deals. “That would have been the easy way to go,” she says. “I was told, ‘No, you should do a makeup line. You should do a personal care line. You should do skincare. You’re doing this backwards, you’re going to fail.’”
So, just like it was another one of her projects, Pfeiffer threw herself head-first into her latest: launching her own fragrance company. The only problem? Finding licensed perfumers who could actually make a product that wouldn’t get flagged by the Environmental Working Group.
In the way that perhaps only a woman with Pfeiffer’s clout can, she used her influence to bring multiple parties to the table: First, the EWG, who had become her trusted resource; second, Cradle to Cradle, a non-profit that provides certification on product safety; and third, IFF, otherwise known as International Fragrances and Flavors, one of the most renowned perfume companies in the world. Together, they all deliberated on how to bring Pfeiffer’s mission to life.
“I tied their hands behind their backs,” she says. “We went from a palate where the perfumers [Yves Cassar and Pascal Gaurin] typically pick from over 3,000 ingredients, and by the time we whittled them down, we were left with roughly 300.” And over the past near-decade of work to make this happen, she was nervous that, at any step of the way, they would throw their hands up in exasperation.
Of course, that didn’t happen. Five distinct scents makeup the range — which still contains hallmarks of perfumery, like white neroli, patchouli, vetiver, and other woods. At the moment, Pfeiffer’s go-to in the rotation is “Torn,” an update on the classic “oriental” category, which is usually denoted by spices and vanillas. “It’s always been my favorite,” she says. “It’s one of the first I formulated.”
The other she loves is simply called “Light,” which she notes is “the hardest to describe.” With hints of wood and an airy, ethereal top note, she recommends it on days you crave something simpler, or layering it with another scent you love.
The cherry on top of Pfeiffer’s thoroughly modern fragrance collection? The fact that all of it is marketed without gender. “That was something I decided early on,” she declares. “It just made sense to me. But I was discouraged by everyone at the time: Genderless fragrances don’t sell, that’s what I was told. But I really wanted Henry Rose to be for everyone.”
“Fragrance is such a personal experience,” she continues. “It just shouldn’t be tied to the idea that it’s for any specific gender. We’re past that.”
Pfeiffer, effectively, has done her part in taking the path of most resistance before adding one more line to her résumé: businesswoman. Against all advice of conventional beauty wisdom, today she celebrates the launch of a company years in the making. But, as we all know, that’s not the only thing she has in store for us in 2019.
Even though she’s listed on the IMDB credits for this weekend’s Avengers: Endgame, she tells me she “cannot talk about it all.” (So we’ll be seeing for ourselves in theatres.) Later on, we’ll see her alongside Angelina Jolie as Queen Ingrith in Maleficent 2, and another project in the works called French Exit.
“Every year, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to simplify, just tear down, just simplify. And I’m so failing at that right now,” she says. “I have so many things going on.” Somehow in the simplification process, Pfeiffer found herself between takes of Maleficent 2, approving bottle designs and selecting a brand name.
At least now her fans have a Disney queen and a universal line of fragrances to toast the actress with. But still, there’s one thing she asks of Out readers as a potential gift to her come Halloween time — something of an homage to what could easily be one of her most iconic roles.
“I want a group photo of all the Catwomans in the gay bar,” she says. “I will post it on my Instagram.”
Michelle Pfeiffer’s New Fragrance Is the Perfume the Clean Beauty World Has Been Missing
Allure | April 8, 2019 by JENNY BAILLY
“We’re not going to make the most ‘natural’ fragrance that we can. We’re going to make the safest fragrance that we can.” – Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer has played a coke-addled trophy wife (Scarface), a poisonous narcissist (White Oleander), and a really nasty feline (Batman Returns). Now she’s stepping into a whole new role as a clean-beauty crusader with her new fragrance line, Henry Rose.
There was a time in my life when I literally lived off Coca-Cola and Marlboro Lights. But then my kids were born, and I started looking at the world through their eyes. Before that, I really didn’t consider what went in my mouth or what was in my environment. Then, suddenly, like a lot of new parents, I started to read labels; I wanted to know what was in things. That was a long time ago [almost 20 years] when honestly it was really hard to get information. And my physicians were not all that helpful. They just thought I was a kook.
Then I stumbled on Skin Deep, the cosmetics database of the Environmental Working Group. It was finally somewhere I could go to look for safer options for my family, at least in terms of personal-care stuff. Time and time again, a product would be fine, but then any added fragrance would push it into a very high hazard level.
I love fragrance; I love perfume. But I stopped wearing it and started looking for natural alternatives. All of them were plant-based, essential-oil-based perfumes. I really missed that fine fragrance scent, so I just stopped wearing any fragrance at all. Almost 10 years went by, and I still really missed it. I thought, maybe I’ll try to do it on my own. I’ll go to a cosmetics company and see if they want to develop something with me. If this is a product I’m looking for, there must be other people out there looking for it. I went to a couple of meetings, and it just didn’t go anywhere. Everybody looked at me like I had three heads. One company told me that they loved parabens and parabens were good for you. That conversation was probably 2008. A real dead end for me.
How not to do a fragrance line…
About three years later, I decided to give it another shot. I’m not sure why. But I was told two things: First, you’re doing this ass-backwards. You really should do a skin-care line. You should do a makeup line. You’re trying to tap into the hardest space first, and you’re gonna fail, you’re gonna fail, you’re gonna fail. And maybe they’re right — we’ll see! The second thing: There’s no way you’ll be able to do the kind of fragrance you’re setting out to do with these [ingredient] limitations. And anyway, nobody will be 100 percent transparent about their ingredients with you. And by the way, this was from the people who were supportive of me.
You really should do a skin-care line. You should do a makeup line. You’re trying to tap into the hardest space first, and you’re gonna fail, you’re gonna fail, you’re gonna fail.
I certainly didn’t want to fail because, you know, who wants to fail? I was new in this space, and getting this advice from a lot of people who’d done this before. It would have been silly for me not to listen to it. But I didn’t.
I realized if I’m going to do this, I’m gonna somehow do it on my own. Find my own chemist, my own perfumer, maybe independently finance it. At that point, I met with Ken Cook, the president of the Environmental Working Group. And that’s when the real learning curve started. I started out thinking that I was going to make something that was purely essential oils. Then I realized that if I was going to get the EWG’s highest level of safety verification, I couldn’t do that—a vast amount of the population has allergies to essential oils.
So I shifted into, ‘no, we’re not going to make the most “natural” fragrance that we can,’ which is a term that I think is very confusing for people anyway. We’re going to make the safest fragrance that we can. The fragrance that would be safest for the most people.
Perfume has its pitfalls
I started working with a fragrance house, but after about a year of work, they weren’t willing to be 100 percent transparent with the ingredients. So I had to walk away. That bump in the road felt insurmountable. Then I met with the fragrance group IFF, International Flavors & Fragrances. They had already been doing some work with Cradle to Cradle, so I thought, Great, let’s get that certification [which assesses a product’s sustainability] on top of the EWG’s. Let’s go for broke! What didn’t fully occur to me at the time, though, was just how restricted I was making the task for the perfumers. They can typically choose from around 3,000 ingredients. When we were done, their palette was limited to about just under 300. There were many moments along the way when I was afraid I was going to lose them because it was so difficult. But they really rose to the challenge.
Learning the language of Fragrance
At one point, they came to my house [in northern California] and smelled my perfumes — Creed Fleur de Thé Rose Bulgare, Opium. But they were rotten. They’d been sitting there for 10 years! I just couldn’t throw them out because I loved them so much. That trip is around when I started to learn that there’s this whole language perfumers speak. They would tell me to describe scents from a feeling, a memory. Like, my dad used to smell like Brylcreem and Old Spice. And maybe that’s why I love spicy scents and men’s colognes. I also remember when I was really young sneaking across the street to my neighbor’s house and standing under the night-blooming jasmine, and it was just so intoxicating. We didn’t have any flowers in our yard; my father couldn’t be bothered with the gardening, but I’d bring their roses home and crush them and try to make perfume. It would smell amazing…until it really started to stink.
I’ve just loved this whole process. It’s made my head want to explode a lot of the time, but it’s been really exciting. And honestly, we would’ve launched already, but we couldn’t find a name. You’re trying to think, ‘OK, what is representative of the brand? What is genderless? What is inclusive? What doesn’t feel gimmicky?’ So I kept going back to the genesis of this. And it started with my kids. I’ve always loved, loved, loved their middle names, and so I thought, well: Henry Rose. A number of people had suggested it along the way, and I just dismissed it out of hand. But it kept coming back, and it kept coming back. So it felt like that’s what the name was meant to be. This started with wanting to protect my kids, and ultimately I started to protect myself through them.
Michelle’s Beauty Speed Round
Favorite roles:
I really enjoyed Catwoman and Susie Diamond. I hate being restricted in life, so I enjoy playing characters that aren’t too buttoned up and give me a wide parameter to play in.
What the movies today could do without:
High-def. I don’t want to see all that on anybody, let alone on myself.
Aging philosophy:
There’s a certain surrender that has to go on, otherwise, you do start not looking like yourself. And there’s a threshold that one can cross that I think we have to all be wary of. But at the same time, I feel like, look, if it makes you happy, who cares what other people think?
Why she keeps skin care simple:
Honestly, because I get rashes. I just can’t use all of those crazy creams.
Most-loved scent:
Maybe vanilla. I haven’t been wearing it for a while because I got tired of people asking if someone had chocolate chip cookies when I walked into the room. But I do love it.
First beauty-product obsession:Maybelline New York’s blue mascara.
Greatest beauty extravagance today:
Lash extensions.
Bath or shower?
Morning shower to wake up, nighttime bath to tell my brain to shut off.
Massage or facial?
Massage.
Yoga or Spinning?
Spinning.
Jet-lag cure:
Tough it out!
Most-used makeup-bag item:
Undereye concealer.
60 SECONDS WITH MICHELLE PFEIFFER
The actress filled us in on her new fragrance line, Henry Rose.
COVETEUR | By: Hannah Baxter | Photography: Jake Rosenberg | Director: Jake Rosenberg |DP: Tim Buol
While it’s notoriously difficult to create an all-natural fragrance that delivers exceptional quality and is also long-lasting, we’re pleased to see that more and more emerging brands are dedicating themselves to fulfilling both. The latest to catch our eye (or our nose, rather) is from none other than actress Michelle Pfeiffer, who with her debut line, Henry Rose, has officially entered the beauty space.
It’s the first fine fragrance to be developed with the Environmental Working Group, and the brand is also committed to using sustainable and renewable packaging whenever possible. Even the gorgeous, minimalist bottles are recyclable. The five scents range from a rich patchouli musk to a crisp vetiver and ambroxan, and are all inspired by Pfeiffer’s own scent memories, making this launch her most personal project to date.
We took a few moments—60 seconds to be exact—to catch up with the budding entrepreneur and ask her about everything from her favorite scents to the inspiration behind the Henry Rose (launching today, April 8) and where she’d happily spend all of her free time. Check it out in the video above.
Why Is Michelle Pfeiffer Making Perfume?
It’s not because George Clooney still owes her money. (But he does…)
ELLE | by FARAN KRENTCIL | April 8, 2019
This is that ice cold Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold...
That’s how the song goes, anyway. But Michelle Pfeiffer, the actual person and not the Mark Ronson fantasy lyric, is rather different.
Sure, she’s got the pale complexion of a Frozen sister, but face-to-face, the movie star has the vibe of a best friend’s mom—warm, interested, and casual enough about her wild youth that you feel free discussing a kind-of-maybe-boyfriend. (“Watch out for those,” she says, and yeah.)
Pfeiffer has come from Malibu to Manhattan to discuss her newest role—beauty brand founder—and to introduce her first-ever line of scents. “I’ve always been obsessed with fragrances,” says the three-time Oscar nominee, “but for the longest time, I didn’t wear them, because all the chemicals in perfume really scared me.”
Enter Henry Rose, a line of scents named for her children and dedicated to 100% clean ingredients. “It’s taken almost ten years,” she admits, “but I’m really proud of the results.”
She’s so proud that she sat down to discuss her five new fragrances, plus some iconic roles and George Clooney tea…
You’ve made over 60 movies, but this is your first actual product. Why fragrance?
Because I’m obsessed with it, but of course, I picked the hardest beauty product to make, and nobody told me until I’d already gotten started! When I said I’d only make a totally “clean” fragrance, I was told, “You will never get fragrances 100% ecological. Never.” So I had to make them myself.
What was the source of that obsession?
Years ago, when I was a new mom, I got obsessed with ingredients. I started asking, “What kinds of chemicals am I exposing my kids to?” Around that same time, my dad was diagnosed with cancer. It was a real wakeup call for me. It really changed the way I began to view health… not just what’s in our bodies, but what’s on and around them. The problem was, the [beauty] products I found that were 100% organic just didn’t work.
So you made your own.
Eventually. It took almost 10 years from start to finish… we finally teamed up with International Flavors and Fragrances, and together, we made formulas with Cradle to Cradle certification—I know, it’s a mouthful!—but basically, the finished product is fine fragrances that have the stamp of approval from the most rigorous watchdogs in the environmental industry. And they still smell amazing, which is the most important thing.
A lot of Hollywood stars have wellness empires. Jessica Alba made The Honest Company, Gwyneth created GOOP… is this the beginning of a Michelle Pfeiffer lifestyle brand?
You know, I didn’t even have a company until last June!…It’s such a miracle that we’ve actually done the fragrances. Of course, I think we’d want to expand the brand a little, but I don’t know what that looks like. I think it has to be transparent, innovative, and sustainable. But I can’t think about anything beyond that.
So we won’t be getting e-newsletters from you about holistic breakups or poop?
An email about my poop? Oh gosh, I’d say that’s very unlikely.
Cool, just checking. So your fragrances have really evocative names like “Torn” and “Last Light.” But the most curious name is “Jake’s House.”
Ah, Jake’s House is actually my grandfather’s house in North Dakota! Jake’s my grandfather. Growing up, their house smelled amazing. I think because I grew up in a family of smokers, our house just stank all the time. Now that I’m making this connection, I think when things smelled beautiful, I just relished it because that was so far from my normal life. That’s why I probably became so obsessed and in love with perfume, because of the smoking.
Were you a big smoker, too?
Oh yeah, I would smoke a lot. I quit when I was 32… but I still want to smoke all the time. I never fell out of love with it. And every time I have to smoke for a role, they have those cigarettes that don’t have nicotine, and it’s like a cruel joke. Because they smell awful but not like a cigarette, and they don’t have Nicotine but they still burn your lungs. But even so, the motion of doing it—just pulling it in and out of your mouth—it’s still so soothing to me.
You have a fragrance named “Fog,” but I bet that doesn’t smell like cigarettes…
It smells like San Francisco in the summertime.
Which of your fragrances smells most like Catwoman?
Oooh, “Dark as Night.” That one smells like you’re out late at night in a place you’re definitely not supposed to be!
What scent comes to mind for your movie Dangerous Minds?
It smells like Old Spice! Which my father also wore, so I developed one of the Henry Rose perfumes—”Torn”—to smell a bit like it, even though at the time, I didn’t even realize… but yeah, I love the smell of Old Spice! I guess because I found it wonderful as a child.
Do you think being a female business founder is—
Crazy?!
No way! Being a movie star is so much crazier.
And I’ve been doing that for like a million years.
I was going to say, do you think being a female business founder is easier now than it would have been if you’d started Henry Rose ten years ago, when you first wanted to do it?
I do think that if you’re a female founder, now is a great time to start a business. Certainly when I started out, there wasn’t this wave that’s happening now. So for once, my timing is really good! [Laughing] Seriously, with my work, I’m not that premeditated—I really should be—but I just kind of “go” when I feel like it. And it’s actually a good idea to do this now.
Your timing seems perfect. After launching Henry Rose, you have Maleficent 2 coming out this Fall…
But I’m not allowed to talk about it! All I can say is that it was so fun working with a cast full of women, just women. You don’t get to do it that often. It’s like you show up, and you’re automatically sisters. It does change the feeling of the work. But that’s literally all I’m allowed to say about it.
Well, if I can’t ask about Angelina, I guess I’ll end with George Clooney. You famously made him a bet during One Fine Day…
I did…
You bet that he’d eventually get married to his true love, and he bet that he’d always stay single. So… Mrs. Amal Clooney is real and amazing, and has he paid you?
No! He hasn’t paid up!
So how much money does George Clooney owe you right now?
Well, the number kept going up and up in the press. I think when we made the bet, it was $200. Then it jumped in some publication to $2000… It keeps growing each time it’s printed. So now, I guess it would be like $200,000?! So sure, I expect a check in the mail. I’m sure it’ll happen any day now. [Laughing.]
George Clooney (and you) can buy Henry Rose fragrances online starting today.
More articles on HENRY ROSE also can be found at:
THE CUT: Michelle Pfeiffer Is Now a Beauty Entrepreneur
INC: Michelle Pfeiffer Has Put More Than Just Her Name Behind These $120 Bottles of Sustainable Perfume
W: Michelle Pfeiffer on the Radical Transparency of Her New Fragrance Brand
Refinery29: Michelle Pfeiffer Didn’t Wear Perfume For 10 Years — & Now She’s Making It
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Michelle Pfeiffer Talks Her New Unisex Fragrance Line
Forbes: Michelle Pfeiffer Launches Henry Rose, A Transparent Fragrance Brand
Bloomberg: Michelle Pfeiffer Thinks You Should Know What’s in Your Perfume
